David Naughton-Shires, Member DirectorJames Hogg, Fellow Directorand our third will be announced when he officially accepts the position.

They join current directors Mark Tabbert, James Dillman, Jay Hochberg and Ron Blaisdell. Nathan Brindle remains as our hard working Executive Secretary/Treasurer. The position of Executive Director has been eliminated. I remain as Editor in Chief of the Journal.

A new and revised set of by-laws were accepted by the officers and directors, and have been posted on the Masonic Society forum, along with being in Issue 8 of the Journal, to be published this spring.

The 2010 semi-annual meeting will be held in late summer or early autumn in New Orleans, home of our new president.

From the very beginning, we have believed that the Society's designation of 'Fellow" should encompass those brethren who have provided outstanding service to the masonic Society, but also to those Masons who labor in the quarries of the fraternity doing work that few other organizations acknowledge. They could be writers, artists, educators, web designers, librarians, administrators, or simply the unsung strong backs who get countless thankless jobs done behind the scenes. With that in mind, sixteen new Fellows of the Masonic Society were named:

Our banquet on Friday evening suffered from the same weather problems as all events this week, with 68 attendees. But bear in mind that was almost exactly the same attendance as last year, and this year we sold over 90 tickets. Because of the weather that cancelled flights and wreaked havoc on the area, the absence of members of our panel discussion meant a little improvisation for our program. The AASR-NJ's William McNaughton and the General Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons, Emory Ferguson were kept away by the snow, so we were joined by the General Grand Chapter's Grand Secretary Larry Gray. And Grand Master of Knights Templar in the USA, William H. Koon II was able to make it in for a few minutes at the end of our program, as well. Many thanks to them both.

We had our table and display in the vendor's area, and picked up new members, as well as a handful of brethren who had been dropped for non-payment of their membership, who were reminded to re-up when they actually saw us there. The Society's reputation continues to grow and improve. Our membership continues to grow. In the 21 months since our beginning, we have gone from zero to more than 1,070 members or subscribers. Many thanks to Nathan Brindle for putting in the hours for three days on the membership table, as well as all of his tireless work on organizing the executive committee and director's meetings, conference calls, printed materials, reports, and the gadzillion other things he does behind the scenes that the rest of us never see.

Jim Dillman was our faithful hospitality suite lifeguard. In real life, Jim is a 911 dispatcher for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, so we felt he was uniquely qualified. When all others gave up for the evening, Jim kept the suite cleaned, well-stocked, and hospitable. We were hidden over in the Retreat side of the Hilton this year, at the end of a long, subterranean walk, but many brethren made the arduous trek and were rewarded with fun, friendship and firewater. Next year, it is our hope that the Virginia and Maryland Second Circle members will be able to take over this role.

I add my own special thanks to Roger VanGorden for all he has done as the founding President of the Society. Just two years ago after Masonic Week had ended, after dozens of phone calls and a flurry of emails among a handful of brethren, the Masonic Society was born as an idea. In many ways it has surpassed the dreams of the group of brethren who sought to create something new. But every single member has played an important role in making the Masonic Society a success. The longtime participants of the Masonic Week festivities who have seen TMS grow from zero to over a thousand members in just two years, and have seen us bring new participants in for our banquet who would otherwise not have taken part, are more than a little awestruck by our rapid growth. That is thanks to all of our members and their confidence in the Society. But it was Roger's vision and calm leadership that has planted a firm foundation for the Society to grow and flourish. He was my first contact when I sought to become a Freemason in 1998. Over the years, I have served as his Senior Warden, worked with him on committees, looked up to him as my Grand Master, and cried in a few beers with him. He is one of the very few men in this world I would follow into battle, anytime, anywhere. I am proud to say the rest of them also serve as officers of the Society.

I look forward to working with our new President, Michael Poll and to visiting New Orleans this year.

ATTENTION!Kindly sign your comment posts. Anonymous postings on Masonic topics have the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned, and may be deleted if I don't recognize you or if I'm in a grumpy mood.

A mythic past. A visionary future. A legendary brotherhood.

Freemasonry is the world's largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity. It is based on the medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Modern Freemasons likewise use the tools, traditions and terminology of those earlier stonemasons as allegories for building Temples in the hearts of men.

It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself.

At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For that man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires. It's not for everybody. Maybe it's for you.

"Brother Chris Hodapp's [blog]...is thought provoking and is often the first place on the web where new ideas and matters of interest are posted."

Chris received his college education at Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

Chris spent twenty-three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

His latest major book project is a 200 year retrospective history of the Grand Lodge of Indiana F&AM, to be released in January 2018.

He and Alice live in Indianapolis with their very French poodle, Wiley.

TIME'S RUNNING OUT! HELP NEEDED NOW!

I have been tasked with writing a new history of the Grand Lodge of Indiana F&AM , concentrating especially on our last 50 years. So, ...

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